Its Your Move! Ike
by mygraffiti94
Summary: Two best friends enter Duel Academy enters both with high hopes. Ike is a bright young duelist but lacks what he calls luck and is bad and thinking of plans on the spot. How will he handle the pressures from attending Duel Academy?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Entrance Exams

Sunlight gently filtered into my room as my alarm clock began to beep. I groaned and shut the alarm clock and opened my phone to check the day. I was quite tired from fixing my deck yesterday which reminded me that today was the entrance exam testing day at the Duel Academy. I grabbed my deck on my desk and placed in to a deck holder before getting prepared to go out. After getting ready I placed my deck into a pocket, grabbed my Kaiba Corp Duel Disk and headed out knowing my parents were already out to work. I stared at my pocket with a stab of guilt because my parents always wanted me to study hard to become a professor but once I got introduced t Duel Monsters, I couldn't help but try my best to become a professional at it. Not to mention the fact that months before the exams I beat up a kid for bullying a group of kids, I literally beat them down. I just hated that kind of stuff, injustices and what not. I got off with a few bruises and cuts but the other kids left with much worse and I wasn't proud of doing it, it was just I couldn't stand kids getting victimized by others. I was almost guaranteed a spot in one of the most prestigious high schools in the region but thanks to the fight they began to reconsider the decision to let me in. Naturally my parents opposed it and then I decided to go try to enter Academia, a compromise between me and my parents because Academia was a prestigious dueling school, any parents will be proud to have their kid enrolled. So there I was in the morning the entrance exams feeling very hopeful to make it in. I grabbed my beat-up helmet out of my closet then I strapped in over my head as I ran outside of my apartment to unchain my bike off the rack. My bike was old but it got its job done well, it moved and could break, what more did I want?

I arrived at the large building where the exams were to take place; it was an old dueling arena where many people gathered to watch professional duelists at their best. I quickly chained my bike next a large amount of others as I saw a figure far off a head coming towards me. It took me a little while to realize who it was but I smiled finally realizing the person, my best friend Ron, a close childhood friend. I waved cheerily at him as he walked over to give me a big hug, not to mention a very tight one, because he did things like that. "Are you ready for this?" I asked as I headed towards the entrance.  
>"Yeah! We are so getting in the same dorm, probably Ra Yellow because we're not rich enough to become an Obelisk Blue." he answered as he walked besides me.<br>"I don't know, I feel this strange attraction to Slifer Red."  
>"Oh you and your low self-esteem."<br>"It's not low self-esteem, it's just the fact I get unlucky or I don't think enough while I duel."  
>"You're good at duel puzzles and know enough about Duel Monsters."<br>"Yeah well... I kind of suck. Anyways let's sign up."

Ron and I headed to the receptionist desk and submitted our names and entered the stadium. In there we saw four dueling fields in the center with hundreds of other prospects and other academy students in the surrounding seats, waiting there and watching the duels. We picked a couple seats and watched someone using his deck to duel a standard testing deck. The deck was obviously a fire deck because I saw a Darkfire Soldier #1 equipped with a Burning Spear. The hologram stood impressively with the fires and everything with a spear instead of the sword depicted on the card. With 2100 ATK I questioned if the much younger duelist could handle it with just a face down monster card. I knew that most times a person would put a face down monster summoned in one turn was when it had high defense meaning that it most likely had 2000, in rare cases 2100 and for one specific card 2700, none the less the tester had the advantage. Once the Dark Fire Soldier charged at it with its new weapon only to meet a strange looking monster with giant hands, a Mind Protector and that had 2200 defense points. The left over damage got reflected to the tester as he gritted his teeth glaring at the blonde haired prospect. 'Ah he's using Psychics. This ought to be interesting.' I thought as I watched the kid draw for his turn.

He lost 500 life points due to Mind Protectors effect bringing his life points down to 1800 compared to the 2300 life points that the tester had. The kid smiled, "I tribute Mind Protector to summon Psychic Emperor! And thanks to his effect, with 4 psychic monsters in the graveyard, he gets 2000 extra ATK bringing his ATK points to 4400. I attack Darkfire Soldier!" the boy commanded as he watched the monster get destroyed and the tester's life points dwindle down to zero.

"Congratulations! You made it into the Duel Academy!" the man said as the Psychic duelist walked off, he looked like a very interesting person to befriend, I hoped that I would be roommates with him judging that he got into my dorm of course. Although I did notice that the boy was saying stuff under his breath and the only think I caught was 'wrong effect' and 'stupid tester' but I ignored it knowing that he probably made a mistake somewhere in the duel.

Then I turned my attention to another duelist facing another tester with no monsters on his field and only 2000 Life Points left while the young duelist himself had a monster on the field with 500 life points. "Judgment Dragon, attack!" he commanded dropping his opponent's life points to zero.

The tester repeated what he said to the duelist with Judgement Dragon, which probably meant he had Lightsworns, a very strong but risky deck type. I gulped as I heard my name get called up so I walked up to the arena and placed my deck into my duel disk and stared at the tester. "Ready? Duel!" he said as he gestured for me to go first.

I drew my first card of the test and looked at the my hand, I had no fusion cards nor fusion gate. I sighed knowing that I had the worst possible luck ever and placed down two cards face down and summoned Elemental Hero Sparkman, one of the strongest heroes and one of my favorite. "I activate Foolish Burial to place a card in the graveyard. My turn ends." I said hoping that my plan would work.

"Good. I activate Umi from my hand! Which-"  
>"Powers all Fish, Sea Serpent, Thunder, and Aqua type monsters' attack and defense by 200 and lowers the attack and defense of all Machine and Pyro type monsters by 200 on the field. I know. You'll probably summon one of those first types I mentioned. Maybe Warrior of Atlantis to get Legendary Ocean?" I interrupted looking a bit annoyed.<br>The tester looked even more annoyed and then summoned Giant Red Seasnake. "You were wrong! Now Giant Red Seasnake! Attack Sparkman!" he commanded as I watched the red thing attacked my vulnerable hero.  
>"That's what you think; I activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow to negate that attack." I said watching the strange looking mesh of metal pop out to defend my card.<p>

He growled as he set a card and ended his turn. I drew a card and smiled, I drew Polymerization. "First I normal summon Elemental Hero Bladedge because of the card in my graveyard, Elemental Hero Necroshade. Then I activate Polymerization to summon Elemental Hero Plasma Vice! I discard Elemental Hero Necroshade in my hand to destroy your Giant Red Seasnake. Now I attack directly!" I said expecting a 2600 direct hit damage only he played Mirror Force. It was then I also realized I could have saved Necroshade's effect by fusing Bladedge out of my hand, oh how pressure made me make stupid mistakes.

I groaned as I ended my turn as he drew and summoned Mermaid Knight (1500/700) which gained 200 extra attack points from Umi on field. "I attack with Mermaid Knight!"

Confused I activated Scrap-Iron Scarecrow watching the same scrap metal come out to negate the attack. "Since Umi is on field, Mermaid Knight's effect activates! It can attack again for 1700 damage!" the tester said as I grunted, taking the direct hit.

I gritted my teeth as my Life Points fell [2300/4000]. I drew a card and smiles since I got my second Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. I set it and ended my turn. "Now I summon Amphibious Bugroth MK-3 (1500/1300)! Now it may lose 200 attack points from Umi but its effect activates to attack you directly, now attack!"

I quickly negated both of Mermaid Knight's attacks but took the hit from the Amphibious Bugroth and gritted my teeth as my Life Points [1000/4000] feel further.

His turn ended and I drew a monster card, Elemental Hero Woodsman, which was very helpful in my situation. I put him in face down defense position and ended my turn. He drew a card and he smiled as he equipped Power of Kaishin to Amphibious Bugroth to increase its attack by 300. It attacked my life points directly but I negated it with my Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. Then I blocked Mermaid Knight's first attack to give an illusion that I at least tried to save my monster and fortunately he attacked Woodsman (1000/2000) causing him to lose 300 Life Points [1000/3700] reflected from Woodsman's 2000 defense. Before he ended his turn he set a card then he summoned Levia-Dragon-Daedalus on to the field for no good reason and didn't activate his dangerous effect, his loss. I did wonder why he didn't maybe it was because he was supposed to test me and not beat me completely. I drew my next card and smiled knowing I had just won the duel. "I use Woodsman's effect to bring a Polymerization into my hand. Now I summon Elemental Hero Wildheart. I activate Polymerization to bring in Elemental Hero Gaia! His effect allows me to steal half of Daedalus' attack and give to Gaia bring his attack to 3500 attack!" I exclaimed as the giant powerful hero formed, "And because of this guy's effect he steals half your monster's attack points and adds it to his!"

"That's not enough to help you. I still have a chance at winning." the tester said calmly.  
>"Yeah you see, you treat me like I'm pretty weak. I know a lot so I activate the card in my hand. Miracle Fusion! This allows me to fuse my removing from play Elemental Heroes, even from my Graveyard! I remove from play Woodsman and Wildheart to summon a second Elemental Hero Gaia who also takes half of your Daedalus' attack again! So now it has only 650 attack and my second Gaia has 2850 attack. You have 3300 life points. Gaia attack!" I said watching my older opponent smile, which made me feel uneasy.<p>

"You should watch your moves next time, I had this face down for a while now. I activate Magic Cylinder to reflect your damage!" he said smiling broadly.  
>"I've had my face down for quite a while too and no it's not Seven Tools of the Bandit if you're wondering. I activate Royal Decree which negates all activation of traps. So my attack goes through." I said feeling quite proud of myself.<p>

The tester gritted his teeth as he took the 2200 damage [1000/1500] from Gaia crushing his giant Sea Dragon. "Finish him." I commanded as my monster attack to beat the only obstacle between me and attending Duel Academy. Feeling excited I ran over to a surprisingly short line of the other entrees. I awaited patiently to sign my name at the receptionist desk.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The First Day

I stared excitedly out the window of the helicopter as it whirled noisily across the ocean. Next to me was my best friend Ron and along with him were many of the other first years attending Duel Academy. Although I got into Slifer Red, the worst out of the three houses, I was just glad that I got accepted. Not surprisingly Ron got into Ra Yellow but I thought he could easily make into Obelisk Blue, only if he had the money.

As the helicopter landed I readied my drawstring bag to leave. In it was my deck case, my binder full of Duel Monsters cards, my wallet, and my customized Kaiba Corporation duel disk. I abstained from using the Academia's kind because we thought they old ones were way cooler. I found mine in my grandfather's dusty old attic who had stored his duel disk there when partook in Battle City back when he was young. Surprisingly it worked after all this time so after a bit of cleaning, there was a lot of dust in unexpected places, I decided to use it instead of the stupid looking Academia duel disks. The administration office let me use it as long as they put in a memory chip in it like the Academia ones and paint it to my house color. So I covered the monster card slots with some paint tape and painted most of the disk red and painted the deck holding slot of the disk white. Now it looked awesome as it can be.

As soon as everyone got off, teachers in various colored blazers began ushering everyone towards their respective dorms. Upon seeing the other dorms such as the large and eloquent Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow dorms, I got a bit excited but all my hopes were crushed from seeing the small shack they called a dorm for the Slifer Reds. It was rectangular with two floors with the stairs on the outside wall. All the first year Slifer Red males looked around the dorm to find that there were eight rooms on the second floor and four on the first floor. Fortunately for us, half the building faced the ocean; I was already planning an awesome future beach trip. However there were only four bathrooms which would make it very inconvenient for everyone in the dorm to shower in the morning. The boys all looked to the right to see the female dorms which was placed on a hill and it looked much cleaner and nice than our dorms, sexism at its best. The professor, a large burly man with short black hair and dark eyes, began handing out the uniforms to everybody as I looked at the small dorm wondering if everyone could fit in there. I grabbed my uniform, an uncomfortable looking red blazer and red shoes, then headed upstairs and entered a room tossing my bag into the bottom bed and getting into my new uniform. It wasn't as uncomfortable I thought it would but it obviously wasn't made from the best of materials. As I took out my deck and duel disk, a kid with blonde hair came running into the room very out of breath. "I was here first! That bottom bunk is… Not mine…" the kid said his blue eyes looking crestfallen, "Aww, I don't trust these beds to hold anyone up."

"Well if you're done talking to yourself, I'm Ike, your roommate." I said holding out my hand.

"Hi, I'm Wally Broke the Fourth. If you're wondering about my name, my dad is German and my mom is Japanese American. My name was supposed to be Brokor like my great grandfather Wally Brokor the Third but he changed it when he came to America." My roommate said shaking my hand.

"That's cool. Anyways, I saw you duel before at the entrance exams. Psychics right? They must be hard to use."

"Eh, I get by with them. What do you use?"

"I prefer the classic Elemental Heroes. I'm trying to collect all of them along with the Neo-Spacians."

"Neo-Spacians? They're pathetic!" Wally said almost in shock.

"Well they're cool and they fuse to become Elemental Heroes and they could be good if used them properly." I answered.

"Interesting, anyways want to duel before we head to this Welcoming Dinner? It'll pass the time quickly." Wally offered heading out the door.

"Sure! There's no way I can turn down a duel but I wonder where our roommate is, how can anyone be running this late?" I said I as followed my new found friend out the door and into an open field between the boy's and girl's Slifer Red dorms.

"Who cares, just get ready to lose." He said as he got his red Academia duel disk ready and put his deck in.

"Me lose? No way." I replied as I readied my custom duel disk.

"Whoa, is that a Kaiba Corporation duel disk?" Wally asked surprised drawing five cards.

"Yup, anyways let's duel!" I said drawing my five cards and smiling knowing I had a great starting hand.

The Life Point counter on our duel disks went up to 4000 each as we began our duel. 4000 was the standard for all learning duelists while professionals used 8000, making the duels much longer and more intense.

"Alright I'm going first!" I said as I drew my card smiling as I formulated a plan in my head, "First I set this monster in defense mode and set these two cards and end my turn." The giant hologram cards appeared in front of me knowing that Elemental Hero Woodsman (1000/2000) could take practically every hit from any four star monster, my advantage.

"My go." Wally said as he drew his own card and did a double take, "Hey you know what I realized? The writers of this fan fic got the effect of Psychic Emperor wrong, fail."

I stared at him quizzically as I thought over what he said trying to make some sense of it, it obviously didn't. "Dude what are you talking about? Fan fic? Writers? Something is definitely wrong with you man." I said as I questioned Wally's mental stability.

"Never mind… I summon Psychic Snail (1900/1200) in attack mode! Now go attack that face down!" my opponent commanded as the creepy looking monster charged at one of my toughest heroes. I revealed Elemental Hero Woodsman reflecting 100 damage to Wally's Life Points [4000/3900], "No!" he cried out as he saw his life points drop, "I end my turn."

"I draw and thanks to Woodsman on field, I get a Polymerization from my deck into my hand, isn't that handy." I explained as I got the card out. Now I had a fusion card meaning that I could Fusion Summon for a stronger hero but I lacked the proper cards to do so, well I did have Wildheart but I knew I needed to save him for later since his fusions were quite strong. "I end my turn."

"My go. First I tribute Psychic Snail to summon Psychic Ogre (2200/1700) then I set this card and now attack!" Wally declared as the stronger monster charged towards my Woodsman. Obviously my Woodsman was going to get destroyed but luckily for me I had my face down, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.

"I activate my face down, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow! It negates one of your attacks and it can set itself again." I explained as I got to continue with my original plan, "Now it's my turn. I don't activate Woodsman effect this turn but I do summon Elemental Hero Prisma (1700/1100)."

"That's not enough to destroy my Ogre you know." Wally commented looking just as confused as I was when he mentioned the obviously smart and awesome 'writers'.

"I know that but you should know how Elemental Heroes work: by fusing them! But first I activate Prisma's effect. Just by throwing my Elemental Hero Ocean into the Graveyard from the Deck, Prisma becomes Elemental Hero Ocean for one turn." I said as a faint hologram of Ocean appeared right behind my pointy crystal monster, "Ready for this? Remember that Polymerization I got from Woodsman last turn? Here it is, lets go! I fuse Woodsman and Ocean, technically Prisma, to form the almighty… Elemental Hero Terra Firma (2500/2000)!" The giant white freaky looking hero appeared as my other two heroes disappeared. Wally looked stunned at my giant monster that could easily beat his stupid Ogre.

"Now go kill that stupid thing!" I commanded as my Hero attacked Wally's monster dealing him 300 damage to his Life Points [4000/3600], "Bring it Wally." I taunted.

"Oh I shall." Wally retorted smiling as he revealed his face down, Telepathic Power. "This card can only be activated when a Psychic monster is destroyed. Then the monster that destroyed gets destroyed in return and I get Life Points equal to its attack points." My new found friend explained as Terra Firma disappeared off the field as he gained 2500 Life Points [4000/6100], "Fine I end my turn now." I said feeling down that I lost one of my strongest cards.

"Great card isn't it? First I summon another Psychic Snail and end my turn since you have that stupid Scrap-Iron Scarecrow." He said as the creepy looking monster appeared on the field again.

"Smart move. First I summon Elemental Hero Stratos (1800/300) who allows me to get any Elemental Hero from my deck into my hand and I choose Elemental Hero Necroshade. Now I activate Monster Reincarnation so I put Necroshade in the Graveyard where it belongs to bring back Elemental Hero Ocean to my hand. Then I play Solidarity! As long as I have only Warrior-types in the Graveyard, all my Warrior-types on field gain an awesome 800 attack power!" I cried out as Stratos gained the attack boost, "Now attack!" I commanded as my monster hovered over Wally and shot two powerful air blasts from his wings to deal him 2600 damage to his Life Points [4000/3500].

Wally gritted his teeth as he drew his next card but then he smiled which kind of scared me. "First I play Brain Research Lab which allows me to put a Counter on it instead of paying for a Psychic-type monster's effect. Then I activate Teleportation which means I can special summon a Psychic monster just by paying 800 Life Points if I have no monsters on field. I pay 800 Life Points [4000/2700]. I summon Psychic Emperor (2400/1000) and use its PROPER effect. You hear that you stupid writers? I gain 500 Life Points for every Psychic-type in the Graveyard. That means 1500 more Life Points for me [4000/4200]." My opponent explained as he gained another edge over me, at least in Life Points, "I'm not done though, I still haven't normal summoned. So come on out Krebons (1200/400) and I think you're done Mike."

I saw Krebons only had 1200 attack with relatively low stars. That either meant it had an epic effect it was a tuner and I was leaning towards the latter. I hated Synchro monsters because most were not limited unless they had cheap effect but even then most were just limited like Stratos. Regardless Wally decided to Synchro summon which meant I was probably going to go downhill from now on. "Now I Synchro Krebons and Psychic Emperor to bring out Thought Ruler Archfiend (2700/2300) now attack Stratos!" the boy commanded as the Synchro monster charged at Stratos only to meet my Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.

"Ha! As cheap as that card is, it still targets Though Ruler Archfiend so its effect activates! If any trap or spell card targets a Psychic monster I can pay 1000 Life Points to negate and destroy it but with Brain Research Lab all I need is to put a simple Counter on it and not pay anything at all. " Wally explained, "Now destroy Stratos!"

I grunted as I took my first hit of the duel losing 100 Life Points [3900/4200], "My go." I said as I drew my card, "I activate Emergency Call which allows me to get any Elemental Hero I want into my hand and I choose Elemental Hero Bladedge! Thanks to Necroshade now in the Graveyard, I can normal summon any Elemental Hero regardless of tributes. Let's go Bladedge (2600/1800)! Then I activate Miracle Fusion! By removing from play any Elemental Hero fusion materials, I can Fusion summon a monster! I choose Stratos and Necroshade, come on out Elemental Hero Great Tornado! That's not all though I play Righteous Justice which means I destroy 1 spell or trap card for every Elemental Hero on field so say goodbye to that facedown and Brain Research Lab."

Wally stood in shock as he was only left with his Synchro monster and 1000 less Life Points [3900/3200] since there was one Counter on Brain Research Lab before getting destroyed.

"Ready for this Wally? When Great Tornado is summoned to the field, all your monster's attack and defense is cut in half. Both my monsters still get an 800 attack boost from Solidarity. It's over now Wally." I asserted as I pointed at him, "Bladedge go for Thought Ruler!" I commanded as my golden Elemental Hero charged towards the weakened Synchro monster and sliced him to bits but Wally didn't flinch like all other duelists did when hit with the blow, it was unsettling but he did lose 2050 Life Points [3900/1150]. "Now Great Tornado, attack directly!"

Wally's Life Points dropped to zero and he let out a sigh of defeat as he took his deck out of the duel disk and placed it back in his pocket. I did the same too when I realized there were a lot of our classmates there watching us which was kind of weird but I guessed everyone wanted to spend time watching a duel instead of doing nothing.

Our fellow classmates began cheering and complimenting the both of us. I just smiled and headed back towards the dorms, quickly followed by Wally. "Wow, you're really good." Wally complimented as we entered our dorm again.

"Really? Now that I think about it, I could have done things completely different but you're good too." I answered.

"Haha thanks, anyways let's go down to have our welcoming dinner."

"Judging by the looks of our dorm, I don't think there will be a 'dinner'." I joked as we headed down to the small space they called a cafeteria, which was conveniently located on the first floor of the girls' dorm.

The cafeteria was filled with males and females alike and we were seated at a table with four other people. They were all girls, and fortunately for me and Wally, there were no other open seats available. Wally and I sat there in awkward silence before one of the girls broke it, "You're the guys who dueled earlier right?" the girl asked moving her long curly blonde hair out of her face.

"Yup but it was a close match." I said nudging Wally with my elbow hoping he'd agree.

"Not really. I got my butt kicked out there. I dealt only 100 damage, you dealt so much more." Wally said shoving my arm away.

"I got really lucky. Trust me; it'll be a lot more even the next time we duel."

"Are you guys going to keep talking to each other or introduce yourselves so you actually have friends to talk to later?" The girl asked sounding a bit annoyed.

"Haha sorry. I'm Ike and this guy over here is Wally." I greeted holding out my hand over the table.

The girl stared at my hand for a second before shaking it, since kids of our generations are a bit uncomfortable with formal handshakes, "My name's Rachel." She greeted.

"I'm Amanda." The brunette to the left of Rachel said without even looking up from her book. She seemed very absorbed in her book instead of the people around her or the food.

"I'm Lauren, and the one across me is Laura." The girl next to me said giving a bright smile.

I glanced over at Laura and found that Lauren and Laura looked very alike. Lauren had auburn hair and brown eyes while Laura had a bit more reddish hair than her sisters but they both had the same eye colors. They even had similar hair lengths which was strange because just based on personality they seemed a lot more different.

"If you're wondering, we're twins but people say I'm better looking." Lauren said giving her sister a bright smile.

"Wanna repeat that to my face?" her twin lashed giving a death glare to Lauren.

I took a glance over at Wally to save myself from the bickering twins but he was busy conversing with Rachel about Duel Monsters strategies and other things. So I turned my attention back to the still arguing sisters, oddly enough it was quite entertaining after listening to them for a little while. "Are you guys all first years?" I asked getting a nod from everybody at our table. I smiled feeling happy that the first friends I made were other first years so I would get to spend more time with during classes, if they ever got boring. I was about to ask everyone else what kind of decks they used but got cut off by the burly teacher from earlier that morning.

"Everybody calm down!" A loud voice boomed throughout the cafeteria, "My name is Professor Allen and I am your dorm adviser. I'm here to make sure you guys don't do anything crazy. Now for our First Year students, our welcoming dinner is one of the best you'll get and don't expect any more. Also dueling with an ante is strictly prohibited and using banned cards is also prohibited. That is all. Everyone dig in!"

The professor looked nice enough to tolerate for an entire year but his size was a bit intimidating. My thoughts of the professor was soon gone because we all got in line for food which consisted of a small bowl of rice, some miso soup, and a small cooked fish. That was it, our welcoming dinner. I sighed as I began to eat and enjoy as much as I could because it wasn't that appealing. As I ate everyone at our table got into a discussion about Duel Monsters because there wasn't much else to talk about and in about an hour left everyone left to the dorms. Unfortunately for the guys, the cafeteria was placed on the first floor of the girl's dorms so we were forced to walk back through the night to our dorms. It dawned on me that the girl's didn't have a dorm advisor but I figured we would see her sometime soon. The short trek felt longer than needed and it was dark but we all made it there safely. Once we all reached the dorms Wally and I changed into our pajamas as another boy walked in with us, probably our other roommate. "Hey I'm George, your other roommate." He said curtly as he got into his pajamas.

Wally and I gave awkward hellos as we all climbed into our beds all excited about the next day. Classes were beginning tomorrow in the morning and that would mark our first day at Duel Academy. I had trouble falling asleep because I was so excited to start the day but after fretting about it for about an hour I eventually fell into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Children's Trading Card Games

I was happily asleep when a sharp beeping noise cut into my dreams forcing me to get up. I groaned and looked around for the source of the noise to see one of my roommates, George, turn off an alarm clock set at the foot of the bunk. I could not believe that he brought an alarm clock to wake everyone up. As a force of habit I abruptly got up only to hit the bottom of Wally's bunk which was right above me. I had not expected it there since I was used to my own bed back at home where there wasn't another bed just a few feet above me. I rolled off my bed groaning in pain as Wally woke up in the same sleepy demeanor I was in. "What the heck man! It's so early!" I complained as I stood up rubbing my injured head.

"Oh you'll live, and classes start in about half an hour." George simply replied heading out with his toiletries.

Thanks to just waking up and my recent head injury, it took me a little while to realize that there were only 4 showers for an entire dorm of about 35 males. I quickly grabbed my toiletries and sprinted downstairs to the bottom floor to get to a shower before they get all taken and I arrive in my first class smelling like God knows what. Fortunately for me I got in a shower but to my dismay they were quite small not to mention very dirty. It was a cramped stall with the tiles stained with suspicious substances and the showerhead was leaking. I soon learned that there were only two temperatures available: sub-zero or scalding. I took a very awkward and uncomfortable shower and headed out towards my first day of Duel Academy. The bright sun made my still damp hair glisten a bit as I went back into my room to change into my red uniform. George and Wally walked with me as we headed into the first classroom to be greeted by Professor Allen, our dorm advisor. "Welcome to the first year of Dueling Theory. I'll be teaching you the basics of Duel Monsters and what to do in certain situations. Let us begin by reviewing all the different types of cards…" the professor said as I began to slowly shut my brain off.

I let out a bored sigh knowing I had an entire year ahead of me but I only looked forward to pick-up duels and probably Duel Application, one of the few classes where I could actually duel instead of sit around and do nothing. I was on the verge of sleeping when a heavy object hit the back of my head, it felt like a notebook, and judging from the strength of it, it probably was swung by a guy like Wally. I looked around only to see Wally sleeping to the right of me so I checked the left of me and sitting there was Lauren, one of the twins I met before. "Focus!" she hissed at me as she continued to take notes.

I rubbed the back of my head, which was still a bit sensitive from my morning injury, wondering where her strength came from and her reasons for caring about my grade. I then turned around to see Laura who was there also taking notes but obviously trying to hide her laughter. I let out a frustrated sigh and began taking notes also, occasionally glancing over at Lauren's super neat notes since I was behind in them already. They had stuck all the Slifers and some Ras together since they assumed we were not smart enough to know what card types were and what they did. Monster, trap, spell, then on to specific types of each. It was quite boring because I already knew everything that the professor was talking and so much more. In fact everyone should know or they wouldn't be able to duel, I guess the fundamentals are that important. The only reason I was put in Slifer was my inability to think of good strategies when I would duel. Unlike dueling puzzles where I had plenty of time to think, dueling for real really messed with my head. I began to reminiscence on all the times I had lost a duel because I made a simple mistake. Those thoughts were quickly broken as I realized I got distracted from class again. I furiously began taking notes again to catch up to the class hoping this dreadful hour would end soon.

I let out a sigh of relief as the bell rang and the class ended and I headed towards my next class, Duel Application. We all entered the classroom and to a big surprise, it was almost all full of Slifer Red students because of our implied dueling level. I let out a frustrated sigh and sat down and waited for the professor to come in. It was a short wait as the professor walked in, 'at least I could entertain myself in this class' I thought to myself. I noticed he was a Ra Yellow dorm advisor and some Ra students entered the class late, naturally no reprimands for them. "Welcome to Dueling Application My name is Dr. Turner. I am your teacher for this course. To start things off, we'll all duel each other by picking out numbers out of this box. Those with the same name will duel each other. Any questions?" the professor asked as I just noticed his PhD hanging off the wall.

We all got up to draw a number and I looked at mine which read 17. It began to look around for the other 17 holder which happened to be Laura. I gave her a friendly smile as we separated from everyone to duel each other. She didn't smile back at me and stared me down, which kind of scared me. But before we could start, I heard a loud and obnoxious voice. "There's no way I'm dueling a Slifer slacker! I would learn nothing from this! She's pathetic!" A Ra student yelled.

I saw Lauren there looked stunned, almost on the verge of crying too, at the idiotic Ra student who just looked disdainfully away from her. I sighed and walked over and stepped in front of Lauren, I did not take bullying easily. "Hey moron, that's no way to treat a lady." I said casually but I was really on the verge of beating his guy down to the ground, literally.

"Shut it Slifer slacker. I can beat you with my hands tied behind my back." The student taunted.

"How about I'll show you what this Slifer can do to you.," I retorted "Dr. Turner, you don't mind if I switch my partner right? It'll be for a more 'educational experience' as this guy wants it to be."

The professor just nodded as I put my deck into my Duel Disk. My opponent looked infuriated as he inserted in his own deck and drew his five cards. "I'll beat you without breaking a sweat!" he said as he drew the first card of the game [4000/4000].

I had barely drawn my five cards when he made his move, not that him going faster made anything more difficult for me. "First I activate, Reinforcement of the Army which lets me get a level 4 star or lower Warrior-type Monster from my Deck into my hand and I choose Marauding Captain!" my opponent said as I groaned knowing I was facing a stupid Warrior deck, "Ready for this? I summon my Marauding Captain(1200/400) in attack mode! Now for his special effect which allows me to special summon another level 4 star or lower Monster in my hand and I choose my second Marauding Captain!"

"Oh no the easiest and oldest lock down strategy in the book, what shall I do?" I said sarcastically knowing I could win very easily.

"Shut it! Then I activate two of my Fusion Sword Murasame Blade which gives both my Marauding Captains (2000/400) 800 more attack! Now go if you dare."

"Booring." I taunted as I drew, "You know you're kind of stupid for not setting any cards. I just won this duel. First I activate Polymerization to fuse Elemental Hero Ocean and Elemental Prisma to bring out Elemental Hero Absolute Zero (2500/2000). Then I summon Elemental Hero Woodsman (1000/2000) in attack mode. Then-"

"Stupid Slifer slacker! You can't attack me. You're forgetting about my Captains' abilities. You can't target other Warrior-types but since two are on field, you can't touch me!" The Ra student said looking quite proud of himself, like I had said, this guy was a complete idiot.

"Do you really think I only carry one Polymerization in my deck?" I said revealing the card I had drawn in the beginning of the duel. I was surprised at how lucky I had gotten but I guess Lady Luck decided to help me in defending my friend.

"So what? No matter how strong your next Monster is, you still can't beat me idiot."

"I don't know how you're in Ra but I'll explain it to you because I'm a nice person. Once Absolute Zero is removed from the field, which is what he is on right now, then all your monsters are destroyed."

"How?" he asked looking stunned.

"Because you're stupid and should learn how to treat girls better. Go Woodsman and Absolute Zero! Combine to form Elemental Hero Gaia!" I said as Absolute Zero cleared the field since the Equip cards were destroyed as well. Then came Elemental Hero Gaia (2200/2600), unfortunately with no monsters on field, Gaia couldn't activate its effect.

"Ha! That's still not enough to kill me. Stupid Slifer slacker." The Ra student said, this kid really did not know when to shut up nor did he have any intelligence.

"For being stuck in an entire class full of us, you should be nicer to Slifers now that you lost to one. AND before you saying anything stupid again, here's a card even idiots like you should know. Monster Reborn!" I said I activate card and smiled at my opponent, "Come back Absolute Zero! Now Gaia and Absolute Zero, attack him directly! [4000/0]"

The student fell to his knees as everyone in the class began clapping, even Dr. Turner, but the other Ra students looked at me with disdain. I was glad to teach him a lesson though and a quick one too. I got a thumbs up from the professor as I took a seat and laid back to watch everyone else duel. I knew I had a long time before class ended but there were so many duels being played that I knew would not get bored. I decided to check out the twins out first because I was curious to see how they would respond to each other not to mention what kind of decks they used.

Laura was going first and the first monster she summoned was Flamvell Firedog (1900/200), a hot headed girl using Flamvells, how appropriate. She then set two cards before ending her turn. When Lauren's turn came I was surprised to see her use Instant Fusion to special summon Flower Wolf (1800/400). There were many things wrong with that because it was weaker than Firedog, which Laura pointed out loudly, and it couldn't even attack. I smiled and realized what she was going to do. Lauren, like I had guessed, summoned a tuner, Naturia Cherry. Then she Synchro summoned Naturia Barkion (2500/1800). After throwing down 2 face down cards she attacked only to encounter a Mirror Force. I laughed at Laura's mistake because all Lauren had to do was remove from play two cards in her graveyard and negate it due to Barkion's effect, which she did much to Laura's surprise. I shook my head and turned my focus to another game. It was between Rachel and George and it was battle between Batterymen and Fairies judging from the monsters on field. George was losing pretty badly already until he used Battery Charge to special summon Batteryman AA even though it only brought Life Points to 100. Then he used Inferno Reckless Summon to bring his other 2 Batteryman AA out on the field giving each 3000 attack. However Rachel's Splendid Venus kept all of George's monsters at 2500 attack meaning all that did nothing save him. Then he played Short Circuit which cleared Rachel's field resulting in George's win. I sat there amazed at the technique as Rachel mumbled to herself, probably about mistakes she made. However I did feel something strange when I looked at the Splendid Venus hologram, it was if the monster tried to stand its ground to protect Rachel. Maybe that was just me going a bit crazy from focusing on too many games at once.

"Nice move George!" I called out giving him a thumbs up for his spectacular finish.

He just shrugged and walked away as if my thumbs didn't mean anything to him. I turned my focus back to twins whose game had taken a change in favors. Laura had Ancient Flamvell Diety(2500/200) and Lauren with Naturia Bamboo Shoot(2000/2000). The Synchro Monster quickly got rid of Lauren's monster leaving her with only 1000 Life Points left. Laura's turn endedI figured her twin lost until Lauren played Miracle Synchro Fusion which allowed her to Fusion Summon Naturia Extrio (2800/2400) by removing from play Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion from her Graveyard. Lauren smiled as she dealt the final blow to her sister and I applauded for the duel not knowing how good they played since I was distracted by other people. Other duels began ending right after and to my surprise the bell rang. Time sure flew by when you were focused on card games.


End file.
